The Dark Eye Blackguards 2

[twincast]

* Also Piranha Bytes are not indies. Or are they?

Neither is Daedalic, strictly speaking, thus the -ish.

 

[V_K]

I wonder, would it cause such an outrage if they just merged base attributes with non-combat talents. I.e. if they'd still do what non-combat talents currently do, but were named like attributes instead.

 

[Baron Dupek]

* Also Piranha Bytes are not indies. Or are they?

they're middle tier developers. Pretty common years back. Now only AAA and indies are important.

 

[Infinitron]

If I wanted to streamline this game, the first thing I'd do is arrange the spells into some kind of tree to make their selection less overwhelming. The REAL newbie-scaring grognard metagame in Blackguards was knowing what spells to pick. Primary stats were easy, just increase them to your minimum requirements for special abilities.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The REAL newbie-scaring grognard metagame in Blackguards was knowing what spells to pick.

It's still there as well. In fact, it's even greater now that there are no saving throws - frenzy used to be powerful, now it's just crazy (as long as it doesn't crash the game).

 

[Infinitron]

Oh wow, they didn't nerf Frenzy?

 

[SCO]

In blackguards 1 i immediately suspected in chargen that the spells i wanted to pick were the ones i was not allowed to pick. I was right (except healing and the very first one anyway)

 

[Darth Roxor]

Haha, Frenzy, I'd forgotten about that.

Not only did they not nerf it, they made it more powerful? Oh wow.

Yeah, it pretty much has the exact same functionality as in the first game, afaik. Just that there is no chance to fail to cast it anymore, and Willpower only shortens its duration by 1 turn.

 

[Emily]

brilliant design

 

[Abu Antar]

The only streamlining the first game needed was a fast forward option in battles, or a skip attack animation option.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Release the presses!

Famed Composer Peter Connelly to craft soundtrack for Blackguards 2

Hamburg, December 16th, 2014. Blackguards 2, Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming sequel to their successful Strategic-Role-Playing Game (SRPG), will not only see numerous exciting gameplay improvements, but now will have a high-quality soundtrack as well – as today, the developers are pleased to announce that renowned composer Peter Connelly will be crafting the game’s soundtrack.

"Peter’s career within the video games industry began in 1995, though his musical and sound engineering background spans four decades. Peter has been employed at various levels of audio expertise including roles as composer, sound designer and audio lead. Peter has composed soundtracks and created sound effects for many AAA titles including Driver: San Francisco, Herdy Gerdy, Fast n Furious and the legendary Tomb Raider series, of which the Angel of Darkness soundtrack was performed by the world famous London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. His most recent projects as composer, audio lead and sound designer include Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, The Crew and Assassins Creed: Identity."

Blackguards 2, scheduled for release on January 20th, 2015, is the sequel to Daedalic Entertainment’s successful SRPG set in the universe of The Dark Eye. The game, consisting of roleplaying- and turn-based-strategy elements, will take players back to the dark south of Aventuria.

Three years after the events of the first Blackguards-game, the slave trader Marwan rules the country with an iron fist from his throne in the city of Mengbilla. The Blackguards still know him as the owner of the Nine Hordes – deadly gladiator games in the arena of Mengbilla – remembering him not very fondly. It’s not a surprise that despite their criminal past, they are the first choice to dethrone Marwan and to end his terror regime. But they will not get involved in Aventurian politics voluntarily, too much has changed in their lives in the last few years: Dwarf Naurim, for example, has rest on his fame as a successful gladiator and defeater of the Nine Hordes. He used his popularity for shady businesses and excessive parties and got quite potbellied – not a very good condition for battles, and so he hung up his axe and ditched his old gang, as long as they wouldn't yield any profit. Wizard Zurbaran was even less lucky: His mistress could track down the former slave, who was able to escape his servitude. She shackled, mortified and sold him for one symbolic copper piece at the slave market. Takate, on the other hand, is back among the forest people and arranges his own gladiator games, letting humans fight for their destiny, just as he was forced to. He believes that there are no challenges left, after he has defeated the Nine and gets bored with sending others to their death. Only a very special character like the new main protagonist Cassia is able to rally the Blackguards around her.

The ultimate goal of the game’s turn-based battles is to conquer as much territory as possible and free it from Marwan’s influence, so that Cassia can claim the Shark Throne of Mengbilla herself. Battles, no matter if fought by one or more squads, range across multiple screens, lead through dungeons, ruins, or bridges spiked with traps and are, of course, inhabited by dangerous creatures. The fiercest among these monstrous foes are the chimeras; magical beasts created by Marwan's chimerologists. Their unique abilities make them formidable opponents: Sandghosts, for example, can turn into a whirling sandstorm, passing through obstacles with ease, leaving devastation in their wake. Just like in the the first game, the battles in Blackguards 2 offer numerous optional elements and interactive items, which the players as well as the opponents can use for their advantage. The additional and alternative quest goals make every battle a unique experience.

The gameplay focuses on turn-based battles and the players have to conquer cities and territories in the south of Aventuria, as well as defend them against intruders when the need arises.

Available to Cassia are not just the heroes of the first Blackguards, but also bands of mercenaries. Their leader is a bloodthirsty and ruthless man named Faramud. Up to ten mercenaries can join Cassia and her champions in battle. Because of the mercenaries players now have the possibility to interrogate prisoners as well. With these interrogations Cassia is able to receive important tactical information for upcoming battles, surprise attacks or other rewards.

Community feedback from the original game has played on the design and development of Blackguards 2, helping add enhanced and improved gameplay, new features and weapons, complex battle maps and much more, all of which await players.

Blackguards 2 will be released worldwide on January 20th, 2015 for PC and Mac for 34.99 US$/ 23.99£/ 29.99€/ 699RUR/ 3,980Yen, featuring full English and German localization as well as subtitles in Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Korean.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

It's like Deadalic are trolling.

This will end up being what many thought they would create the first time around. Not good.

 

[Crooked Bee]

RPS' Adam Smith has written a sort of positive news article about BG2 already. He probably feels a bit guilty about RPS outright ignoring BG1, tho' maybe I'm overthinking this.

In any case, it would be amusing if RPS ended up liking this one over the first one, leading to better sales. Doubly so if they end up liking it at least to some extent because they refused to give the first one a fair chance altogether.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'll still buy it.

 

[LESS T_T]

Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/314830/

It's not available for preorder yet.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Available or not, if it has been turned into a bucket of decline, it does not deserve your hard earned monies.

 

[Infinitron]

Daedalic putting together some Dark Eye lore videos:

 

[Infinitron]

New lore video:

 

[vonAchdorf]

New lore video:

The preview image looked like they'd copied the DA:I tarot card style, but alas, it's only their "gods" video with TDE art.

 

[Infinitron]

GameBanshee preview round-ups: http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/114902-blackguards-2-previews.html

GameZone:

Continuing the turn-based, strategic, RPG theme from the first game, Blackguards 2 expands upon the popular Dark Eye universe table-top game. While advancing the systems in the sequel, the developers also simplified or downright removed some of the previous systems. Take ability points – gone. Skill trees – simplified. Weapon trees – better. The UI and what can be interacted with improved for the greater as well. Making all the variable elements that can be tinkered with a lot clearer, it makes the gameplay a lot smoother, to a far less frustrating level.

Tech-Gaming:

The setting which Blackguards 2 is based on is no stranger to dark fantasy, and the game immediately establishes a grim mood. In it, we play as Cassia, a princess betrayed, banished and left to die in her kingdom’s dungeons. The first few missions span over several in-game years, as our heroine slowly descends into madness and escapes captivity. In its current state, the story is perhaps Blackguards 2’s strongest asset. It’s gripping, funny and grim all at the same time and even employs dark humor, with the main character ranging from sympathetic and heroic to borderline psychotic.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

The big change is a strategic map and dynamic campaigning rather than the linear plod of the original. Slavers are attacking settlements and you’ll use heroes and mercenaries to fight back, reclaiming territory and defending areas that you’ve claimed. Maps can switch control several times during a campaign, which should go some way toward eliminating the irritation of repeated failure. Anything that opens the game up a little and allows me to experiment with characters, skills and equipment is a good thing. The original felt like it had given me an enormous banquet and then passed me a teaspoon to eat it with.

The Reticule:

For those unaccustomed to Blackguards 2‘s gameplay style the main portion of the game takes place in two places; your campsite and the battlefield. The battlefield is of course where you test your skills on a tiled map using a turn-based system. Your characters can be strategically placed before the first turn is taken and the map can also be fully viewed before you start. One stumbling block I ran into early on was that I would quite often find myself taking a couple of turns on a new map then restarting once I had a better gist of what my overall goal was. Blackguards 2 does allow you highlight interactive items on the map, but only once characters have been placed and turns are in play. There is also occasionally a bit of dialogue before the first turn, but in many cases neither of these fully explain the maps end goal and on the hardest difficulties this can be a death sentence if you make a tactical error early on.

Gizorama:

Set in the fantasy world of South Aventuria and based off of the RPG game, The Dark Eye, Blackguards 2 takes place a few years after the events of Blackguards. The main protagonist, Cassia, is thrown into a dungeon for reasons that went far over my head but somehow involved a rather traumatic opening scene involving a pet cat. As she suffers at the hands of venomous spiders and torturous traps, Cassia vows to raise an army and overthrow the leader of the lands, in turn taking the Shark Throne for herself. With the help of the remaining Blackguards Takate, Zurbaran, and Naurim, you must gather mercenary forces and take back the lands, one village at a time.

Game Critics:

The area that was shown had several ways to interact with either the party, or the enemies scattered across it. Oil slicks can slow, or, if lit on fire, damage those trying to cross. Precariously-stacked boxes can make a great impromptu barricade forcing pursuers to either waste time moving them or find another route. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that these traps work both ways and the enemies will be all too happy to use them as well.

GameWatcher:

Combat is turn-based and takes place in the world on a hex-based grid with the usual array of spells, skills, special skills and moves ready to unlock and use. There are improvements here too making Blackguards 2 a little easier to play by simplifying character levelling. Direct levelling of talents and skills is now possible and magic spells are now always casted successfully (previously an extra roll determined a successful cast).

Cubed3:

What is interesting is the overworld map. Instead of opting for a simple series of missions, or even just a series of randomised battles, for resources the game provides a map with a series of towns and other locations, with each providing certain bonuses and assets. Taking one location will bolster the defence of Cassia's mercenaries, while another will boost their attack, all while the enemy forces are trying to push back and claim their old territory, resulting in a need for management and map control.

Gaming Bolt:

This is where the game massively succeeds and also falls a little short. Moving is as simple as pointing and double clicking on the tile you want to move to, the item you wish to operate (such as a number of levers that will open doors and release bridges) or fight enemies. As the game progresses, right clicking offers up a ton of different options such as casting spells, going into a defensive position and ending your turn. Blackguards 2 architects did this part right, because there is more than a little strategy associated with moving. You can only move a certain number of spots in any given turn, and there are some traps that will be sprung in the wrong tile.

Mouse N Joypad:

While not an overly beautiful game, Blackguards 2 does look nice. With its greenish undertones and lots of dark places, it’s a haunting universe filled with all kinds of dangers for you to unravel. Most levels have a unique thing or two about them, so expect to be looking at a bunch of intricately designed and nicely rendered backgrounds while moving on all kinds of different hex layouts. The animations are improved over the series’ last iteration too, and there is a fair amount of eye-candy to be found here. The current preview build does have a few issues with performance though, as my FPS dipped to low twenties in some levels. Still, these bugs are sure to be ironed out before the release, which is currently slated to be on the 20th of January next year.

Bag of Games:

The original game was, at times, rather clunky. The Dark Eye universe’s experience points, Adventure Points, had to be spent on attributes like dexterity, intelligence, charisma, among others. This has been removed from Blackguards 2, instead weapon mastery is clearer, skills are set out in a much simpler way, and acquiring skills or spells doesn’t require you to jump from city to city looking for the right teacher, instead you have a hub camp with a pair of teachers for every skill.

Entertainment Buddha:

Blackguards 2 doesn’t skimp on the choices department, giving you dozens of spells, tactics, maneuvers, and weapons to master for each of your characters. The top down world map also allows you to decide which neighboring territories you wish to conquer first, based on their rewards and resources. Do you need gold? Attack an ore mine. Want more troops and abilities? Go free some friendly murders from a prison. Back at your home base, you’ll have access to paid spies, prisoners of war you can interrogate, and companions to learn about. The story, characters, and gameplay of Blackguards 2 is rich with detail and I can’t wait to see how it all comes together in the full version when it releases in early 2015.

Biogamer Girl:

Cassia will have to battle against creepy Corapia spiders and much more throughout her adventures while gathering loot, adventure points and gold. Players can talk to people, buy or sell items and learn new abilities from the town screens throughout Blackguards 2. Players will advance the story by chatting with people in town and through the decisions they make. The amount of goods that gamers can buy in Blackguards 2 depends on the town and merchant which offers up a wide-variety of items for use throughout your adventures. While we only had a few hours with Blackguards 2, it is already shaping up to be another great release in the series with its beautiful visuals, immersive soundtrack and intriguing gameplay.

Diehard GameFAN:

Also changed this time around is that you no longer have to level up your base stats. Now, those stats will upgrade over time automatically. You’re free to spend all of your experience on various spells, abilities, and talents. This certainly helps streamline the game a bit, and will make leveling up your character a less painful experience.

And NoobFeed:

When attacking, you’ll be presented with a percentage, which shows your likelihood of hitting the enemy target. If your archer stands face-to-face with an enemy, the chances of hitting will be at 0%, if they’re positioned further away however, they can increase their chances of hitting a target. There are many abilities you can use while in combat, depending on who you are controlling. Your average mercenary will have limited abilities, but ‘Heroes,’ such as Cassia, have unique abilities than can aid them in combat in many ways. Some may be healing spells, abilities that decrease the enemy’s endurance or ones that increase the likelihood of you dodging an opponent’s attack. These abilities however; cost mana, which does not regenerate during battle, so you must not use these over-zealously.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/114949-blackguards-2-previews-2.html

Gamereactor:

Our first impression of the game was the surprisingly interesting performances of the voice actors. While it feels like a radio play in many respects, and some of the performances feel a little over-cooked, there's some nice lines in there. The scene is set, a new character called Cassia is cast into an underground jail, a labyrinth full of spiders. These arachnids bite Cassia until she starts to lose her mind and her face becomes grotesquely deformed.

Horror Cult Films:

The game uses an hexagonal grid system for the character to move along the varied environments with all sorts of nasty enemies in the way, from skeletons to spiders, and with various levers and such to interact with to reach the destination. When face-to-face with an enemy, you have the option of moving a short distance and playing an attack, be it melee, ranged or spell-based, or you can move a longer distance in one go without attacking. Each character takes it in turn to play their desired move. When it comes to combat, the game even highlights how successful you’ll be, in the form of a percentage, when attacking the enemy with a weapon.

Flickering Myth:

A minor bugbear – and this is more my own fault than the game’s – is the gear. The first trader I came to I had assumed that the starting gear I was wearing would be rubbish and because I’d looted around 16 gold, I bought all the armour I could and swapped it; it turns out the starting gear for this hero is rather good and I wasted my gold. The thing is everybody knows that your starting gear in every game is just paper pants and a tissue t-shirt!

Here is the City:

One of the best parts of my experience with the game would be the story. Playing as Cassia, a woman banished into a dungeon with no hope of escape, you start the game walking through said dungeon trying to find a means of actually getting out. This section serves as something of a tutorial. Unfortunately the dungeon is filled with giant spider-like creatures (I hate giant spider-like creatures) that have a poisonous bite which will either kill you or send you insane. Spending four years down in the depths with the spiders, Cassia becomes disfigured and loses her mind. Eventually escaping the dungeon she has nothing but revenge on the braind. As someone who generally likes to play the 'good guy' in games, and creates them in RPGs, I enjoyed the dark tones of Blackguards 2, and the twisted angle they went for with the main protagonist.

And Pissed Off Geek:

A nice touch to attack is the weaponry that is available and the understanding that you can build up about the environment. Magic is particularly effective when fighting the enemy as are long ranged attack weapons. I liked the fact that characters who are equipped by spears can also attack over two spaces on the battleground rather than just one. The fact that some low objects and even dwarves can also be low enough to allow the spear attack to move over them is a nice touch too. Little touches like this make combat fun, though not too easy.

 

[Bubbles]

The original game was, at times, rather clunky. The Dark Eye universe’s experience points, Adventure Points, had to be spent on attributes like dexterity, intelligence, charisma, among others. This has been removed from Blackguards 2, instead weapon mastery is clearer, skills are set out in a much simpler way, and acquiring skills or spells doesn’t require you to jump from city to city looking for the right teacher, instead you have a hub camp with a pair of teachers for every skill.

Hell yeah, pre-ordered

 

[vonAchdorf]

They'll have a Twitch-Stream with GOG today:

Join Daedalic Entertaiment, for an exclusive special pre-view on Twitch.tv/GOGcom, starting on Tuesday, January 13, at 10pm CET/9pm GMT/4pm EST/1pm PST.

 

[Infinitron]

New features video:

 

[vonAchdorf]

New features video:

Promoting C&C - they want to appease.

The stream is on now.

 

[Infinitron]

Promoting C&C - they want to appease.

The stream is on now.